Elite : Dangerous

[Ttaskmaster]

How easy is it using the more traditional method? Keyboard & Mouse?

Depends how experienced you are at that sort of game control, IMO...

I played years of Freelancer and greatly prefer KB&M for Star Citizen, as the ships in both just fly toward wherever you put the cursor.

In ED, however, the cursor only rotates around the central HUD circle/targetting area. I couldn't figure out how to vary the speed of pitch/yaw. Same for keyboard only, as the commands were either on or off.
I found it such a complete PITA, I just went over to joystick and never had an issue thereafter.
Slightly disappointing, as I was hoping my Mouse Of Many Buttons would provide me a slight advantage with more commands available to both fingers. However, a cheapy basic HOTAS type setup does me pretty well as is (Cyborg FLY-5).

[cptwhite_uk]

I'm playing Elite with keyboard and mouse (I just find it more natural and accurate). Don't think I'll ever be an ace pilot in newtonian mode but I can't say I feel limited or held back. I have all the controls I need mapped and I'm quite comfortable using it. I find the mouse control in Elite quite natural and don't have any problems using it.

[GreenPiggy]

I'm getting this... ! Be downloading it tonight.

How easy is it using the more traditional method? Keyboard & Mouse?

It's fine, I never think i'm in a situation where I could control the ship any better using a joystick.
Having a Razer Naga to activate lots of different speed and pip hotkeys is a must for me though.

[Lowe]

Only problem with KB/M is the lack of being able to pull consistent turns which are the core of the dogfighting mechanic. Every time you run out of mousemat and have to lift your mouse in order to carry on pulling up, your opponent is gaining lead on you or potentially shooting at you. For general trading and flying about that's not an issue but given Elite has a fair leaning toward combat you're putting yourself at a disadvantage.

[GreenPiggy]

Doesn't matter if you disable mouse auto-centering

[Allen]

Managed to play for a little while last night on 4G, although I was in solo mode it was quite acceptable. The loading from menus to game and back are now super fast, that's a nice improvement.

I bought a Viper with my new found wealth, upgraded the weapons to gimballed lasers (couldn't really afford much else) and went out hunting... Had some good fights all in all, racked up some nice bounties, although I still have to dock in some systems to collect them after I realised I wasn't getting any money, just "vouchers"... Kind of annoying, not sure why there's a need for that.

[Lowe]

Doesn't matter if you disable mouse auto-centering

Makes sense

[Lowe]

I bought a Viper with my new found wealth, upgraded the weapons to gimballed lasers (couldn't really afford much else) and went out hunting... Had some good fights all in all, racked up some nice bounties, although I still have to dock in some systems to collect them after I realised I wasn't getting any money, just "vouchers"... Kind of annoying, not sure why there's a need for that.

It's a risk vs reward thing - do you cash in early and guarantee your cash or hang on in the fight and risk losing it all to gain a few more credits? Makes starting an engagement a little more risky whereas if the cash was just wired into your account you'd never leave the combat zone.

Be careful with a stock Viper, since b2.0 it's frankly a bit of a pig. The b1.0 ships were upgraded as stock, b2.0 ships aren't. So, it's fairly easy to be out turned by a Sidewinder or even a Cobra which leaves the Viper looking well - a little bit pants. You really have to cut the weight down as much as possible to allow the stock thrusters to give you the manoeuvrability you need. To upgrade it to the b1.0 stock ship you need about 3-4 million credits!

[Ttaskmaster]

It's a risk vs reward thing - do you cash in early and guarantee your cash or hang on in the fight and risk losing it all to gain a few more credits? Makes starting an engagement a little more risky whereas if the cash was just wired into your account you'd never leave the combat zone.

^ This... and the fact that it would be prohibitively expensive for the banks to put money-wiring kill-sensing transmitters in each of the 400 billion star systems you could potentially kill someone in!!

[Allen]

It's a risk vs reward thing - do you cash in early and guarantee your cash or hang on in the fight and risk losing it all to gain a few more credits? Makes starting an engagement a little more risky whereas if the cash was just wired into your account you'd never leave the combat zone.

OK, that makes sense I guess. However, I didn't realise that if you died you lose those "vouchers"! Scared now!

Be careful with a stock Viper, since b2.0 it's frankly a bit of a pig. The b1.0 ships were upgraded as stock, b2.0 ships aren't. So, it's fairly easy to be out turned by a Sidewinder or even a Cobra which leaves the Viper looking well - a little bit pants. You really have to cut the weight down as much as possible to allow the stock thrusters to give you the manoeuvrability you need. To upgrade it to the b1.0 stock ship you need about 3-4 million credits!

I did wonder why I struggled against some Sidewinders... I had one completely out-strafing me and had to run away as he slowly nibbled away at my shields!

OK, so I have about 50k and a Viper with gimballed pulses, I can't afford anywhere near 2-3m to upgrade it so I think I'll go back to a Sidewinder, or downgrade to an Eagle or something. What would you recommend is a good path? For example, say you had to start again from scratch right now, using your Sidewinder, what would you do to get up to speed quickly?

[Lowe]

Stick with the Viper now - you can offset the problem by losing weight rather than buying more expensive stuff. So looks for lower class but higher rate items. They're typically the same spec but less mass, and not too pricey. As you lose weight your thrusters become more effective. Viper thrusters are quite rare too by all accounts.

[Macman]

I'm going to assume this game has Microtransactions?

[cptwhite_uk]

Not that I'm aware of. You buy the game then you play it if you want to buy upgrades, you know, like it used to be!

[Macman]

I hope not as I hate Microtransactions with a passion :/

I hope to have this soon! Just not been able to get on PC due to renovating the room. Arghhhh just not enough hours in the day to get everything you want done.

[Ttaskmaster]

I'm going to assume this game has Microtransactions?

They kinda do, but only inconsequential crap, namely ship skins for £2.
Nothing that actually affects gameplay in any way.

[Lowe]

Yeah, it's only cosmetics thank goodness. No pay to win.